Porsche Mixte Hybrid

With the price of oil going up every day and the worsening shortage crisis worldwide wouldn’t it have been great if the powers that be had continued their research into the Lohner-Porsche Mixte Hybrid?

It was the first hybrid vehicle ever developed, way back in 1901 by a young man called Ferdinand Porsche who built it using wheel hub motors mounted in each wheel and powered by electricity. The power was delivered from two batteries and a small generator. He was only 18 when he got a job with Jacob Lohner. He had no formal engineering education when he discovered how to harness the electric power.

The car was first shown at a Paris Expo and created a press whirlwind at the time but unfortunately it never really took off and the idea was quashed by oil barons. Later he built one capable of running on petrol, as well as electricity and it could carry four passengers instead of the original design which was just a two-seater. It was a bit of a monster as it required 1.8 tonnes of batteries and cost a massive amount of money. It probably would have saved the world billions in the long run and who knows, maybe if research into this type of vehicle had taken off then we may have avoided a lot of wars and environmental disasters worldwide.